Technology

Algorithms, access, and automation. How digital infrastructure and automated decision systems distribute opportunity and encode existing discrimination.

Claims in this domain

66
Individual Structural
AI hiring tools discriminate against protected-class applicants
The mechanism is demonstrated and the anecdotal record is strong — Amazon scrapped an internal resume screener that penalized the word 'women's,' the EEOC's first AI hiring …
58
Partially supported
76
Individual Structural
Automated public-benefits systems disproportionately wrongly deny marginalized applicants
The case-study record is damning and well-documented: Michigan's automated fraud system falsely accused tens of thousands of unemployment claimants with a reported error rate above …
72
Supported
72
Individual Structural
Automation displacement disproportionately affects low-wage and minority workers
The econometric evidence is strong: robot adoption measurably reduced employment and wages in exposed local labor markets, task-displacement analysis attributes 50-70% of the …
74
Supported
75
Individual Structural
Broadband and 5G infrastructure investment lags in low-income and minority communities
Deployment mapping studies consistently find fiber and network upgrades concentrated in higher-income areas within the same cities: analyses of AT&T's footprint found fiber …
70
Supported
74
Individual Structural
Facial recognition misidentifies people with darker skin at higher rates
This is one of the best-documented findings in algorithmic fairness research. Buolamwini & Gebru's Gender Shades audit found commercial gender-classification error rates up to …
85
Strongly supported
70
Individual Structural
Gig platform algorithms opaquely and unequally set pay and allocate work
The opacity half of the claim is thoroughly documented: platforms control pay formulas, change them unilaterally, withhold fare and destination information, and use behavioral …
60
Partially supported
80
Individual Structural
Healthcare risk-prediction algorithms underestimate Black patients' care needs
Obermeyer and colleagues' analysis of a commercial algorithm applied to tens of millions of patients found that at the same algorithmic risk score, Black patients had substantially …
78
Supported
78
Individual Structural
Predictive policing algorithms reinforce existing racial disparities
The feedback-loop mechanism is formally demonstrated and the input-data problem is thoroughly documented: arrest and incident data measure enforcement activity, not underlying …
70
Supported
78
Individual Structural
Surveillance technology is disproportionately deployed in low-income and minority neighborhoods
The deployment geography is documented across technologies: crowdsourced mapping of NYPD camera coverage found higher camera density in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, …
66
Supported
71
Individual Structural
Algorithmic bias in hiring and lending perpetuates discrimination
Bias in algorithms is documented; whether it perpetuates discrimination is contested. Algorithms may amplify or reduce discrimination depending on training data and design. …
48
Contested
76
Individual Structural
Broadband access gap drives educational and economic inequality
Broadband access correlates with educational outcomes; causation requires isolation from confounding factors. Some quasi-experimental evidence (infrastructure expansion) shows …
62
Partially supported